Luxury Obsessed Baby Mama #1: Oct 2013

I'm thinking of starting a designer haul series where I can review the things that I purchased on a more expensive side. Because this won't be a monthly thing (unfortunately), I will just number it. Will you be interested to read about this stuff? Please let me know. This would partly be the beginning of my lifestyle blogs and not just beauty.

A big purchase of October was an Hermes Birkin! Both my mother and I have been on the wait list for a Birkin since about 2 years ago. And finally they came. But in different locations. I was actually after a blue colour and my mother is after the purple colour but we ended up picking up each others due to location convenience. My mum will be flying into Sydney next monday where she will bring me the Bleu De Galice Birkin 35 that she picked up for me. I can't wait to see it! So here is the Raisin Birkin I will eventually give to my mum. This is my first 35 and it is such a practical size. Now that I have the 35 to compare to, the 30 Etoupe just looks like a toy. I used to think it was big enough, but not anymore! If your situation allows you to save up for and own a Birkin, I highly recommend a 35. And given the right colour and leather, it really is a classic and timeless investment that you will be sure to treasure.

Birkin 35 in Raisin with Gold Hardware

Now it joins my current collection of a Gold Kelly 32 and Etoupe Birkin 30. I also have a rouge Evelyne 33 but it seems so cheap and unluxurious compared to the Kelly and Birkins. 

Gold Kelly 32 GHW, Etoupe Birkin 30 PHW, Raisin Birkin 35 GHW

Do you know any tricks to buying a Birkin? Currently, at most Boutiques you have to spend an amount equivalent or more on non-bag products in order for a Sales Associate to notify you of any Birkin arrivals in their Boutique. This ends up making the value of the bag more as the other products were only chosen in order to get a Birkin. I'd love to know if there are any tricks from different Boutiques to secure a Birkin or Kelly in a...cheaper fashion.

  

A second big purchase of Oct is my first car! Well, I can't say it's my big purchase as it was a gift from my parents. My parents have always agreed to buy me a car, my first car but because I always commute to work by train, there never seemed a reason to invest in a second car for juts my husband and I. But now that I will be a stay at home mum, I will need something to get me to the shops and visit family etc when my husband is at work. We ordered this car with all the specifications and various packages in June this year and due to ML350's popularity, we had to wait more than 4 months for this car to be ready. But my baby girl will non the less be taken home from the hospital in a Mercedes :) Lucky thing.

October Beauty Haul

Aside from all the products that I have already reviewed and purchased in October (Mecca Haul, Bobbi Brown Hot Cocoa Palette, maybelline shadow quads) these are the "left overs". The products that I wasn't too excited about or regarded as deserving it's own rant. Last week, and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, I had a love affair with drugstore products from Target. I visited target about 3 times in a single week, purchasing cosmetics and baby related merchandise. I also hit Daiso Japan in Chatswood and made a little order from kissandmakeupny.com. Here are the newbies to join my already overflowing collection.

Detergent for Puff and Sponge. I have heard much rave about this from the Facebook group "Makeup Social" (which I check daily by the way and it is not a good thing! You always hear about beauty products that you can buy) It is a $2.80 cosmetic brush/sponge cleaner. Yes, that's right $2.80 for an 80mL. Are you still wondering why I purchased 3 bottles? Daiso is unbelievably cheap for the quality of product that you get. I always mix the solution with some water for just in case the chemicals could damage my make up brushes. I haven't tried it on beauty blenders yet but I've only heard miracle testimonies on it's effect on sponge stains. If there is a Daiso near you, this is definitely worth trying out. The square thing on the left is blotting paper. It is also $2.80 for a pack of 100 sheets. And the paper is MASSIVE. It is great value for money and one sheet is definitely enough for blotting your t-zone throughout the day.

My little purchase from kissandmakeupny.com was a little disappointing. I initially only wanted to buy the Laura Mercier Spellbound Illuminator which is a limited edition highlighter. But to justify the $10 flat rate shipping, I selected 2 other products that I didn't need but decide was worthwhile to add into my cosmetics stash. Turns out, after payment, the spellbound highlighter has ran out of stock. I emailed to cancel the order as I only initially made the order for the highlighter, and they've already shipped it! Yesterday! I threw a bit of a fit in the email for not being notified before my incomplete order was sent out to me and they waved the shipping fees as an apology. So now I have yet another loose powder (Laura Mercier Transparent Loose Powder) and blush (Nars Deep Throat) that I didn't need. I wish I had added the Laura Mercier Body Butter in Creme Brûlée now that I think about it. Maybe next time.

Now onto the Target haul. I'll just get the boring stuff out of the way first. I was in dire need of a pressed powder that I could carry in my bag for touch ups throughout the day. All the current ones that I have (Rimmel Stay Matte, Hourglass Ambient Powder, MAC MSF Natural, Bourjois Healthy Mix etc etc) doesn't come with a sponge for application. The one I previously used from Gorgeous Cosmetics oxidizes hideously on my skin. (I really don't know why Gorgeous Cosmetics can think they're mediocre brand can charge so much for their products). So I purchased 2 Revlon Nearly Naked and 2 Australis Fresh and Flawless Pressed Powder. Nearly naked has been said to be lightweight with good coverage and Australis is apparently a dupe for MAC's studio fix powder. They are certainly doing a better job that Gorgeous Cosmetics for only a fraction of the price.

In last months Monthly Marvels I raved about the Covergirl & Olay Simply Ageless Concealer but mentioned that it was my exact skin tone rather than a little lighter to brighten the under eyes. So this month, I bought the lighter shade. I love it and the colour is great for making me look more awake and presentable.

L - R: Dare to be Nude Lipstick, Capuccino Please! shimmer eyeshadow, Party All Night metallic eyeshadow, Metropolitan sparkling eyeshadow

L - R: Dare to be Nude Lipstick, Capuccino Please! shimmer eyeshadow, Party All Night metallic eyeshadow, Metropolitan sparkling eyeshadow

I have never paid attention to Essence before. I always thought it was cheap stuff that high schoolers bought. Boy was I wrong. I have never been so impressed! (Maybe it's because my expectation for this product was so s*** that I was pleasantly surprised?) For $2.85 eyeshadows and $4.95 lipstick, they are a small but rewarding investment. The pigmentation and effects of the eyeshadows are seriously comparable to those that I have for Chanel. Heck, Chanel's colour pay off isn't even as good as these Essence shadows that I bought. I am definitely going back to the Essence counter next time I hit the mall for some more cheap goodies. 

L - R: Ultra Moist Lipwear in Thalia, Wonder Pencil in 01 Clair, Jumbo eye pencil in Iced Mocha

L - R: Ultra Moist Lipwear in Thalia, Wonder Pencil in 01 Clair, Jumbo eye pencil in Iced Mocha

Nyx has just hit Target in selected stores in Australia and the prices are a bit appalling. It is a little more than double it's american price. So it is still cheaper to purchase from online sites such as cherry culture or beauty joint with shipping included. The only downside is you can't swatch it. Just last week cherry culture had all Nyx products marked down up to 20% off and a further 25% site wide. I regret the colour of the lipstick a little bit as I found that it changed colour and was a little bit more darker and more purple. Just an unflattering shade with my skin tone. The wonder pencil however is a true wonder. It's better than my current Chanel kohl Pencil in Clair as it is longer lasting and more intense in colour. But the theory behind the wonder pencil doesn't really work. There is no way that a eye pencil, reverse lip liner and concealer can all be the same colour. Reverse lipliner and concealer can be similar shades but an eye brightening eyeliner has to be lighter than your skin tone in order to brighten. No?

L - R: Smoky Quartz, Backstage

L - R: Smoky Quartz, Backstage

Long story short, I went in to purchase the eye shadow in Smoky Quartz because Tanya Burr said it was a dupe for MAC Satin Taupe eye shadow. I walked out with Backstage as well. The end. I feel like I'm a bit obsessed with this gunmetal, bronzy, browny eyeshadow as you can see from Nyx Iced Mocha and Essence Party All Night.

Maybelline Expert Wear Eyeshadow Quads

I'm not usually one to purchase flimsy packaged, cheap looking drugstore products, so the chance encounter with these Maybelline eyeshadow quads is pretty out of the blue. Being a neutrals-only girl, i picked out the only two which contained colours that I would actually feel comfortable wearing. The two that I picked up were Natural Smokes and Designer Chocolates.

The first palette that I caught my eye was the Natural Smokes quad. It had a gorgeous satin taupe-y lid colour and two matte shades which could be used on the brows as well as lids. This was, in my books, a practical palette. A complete eye look in one. But having used this, I realized my hopes had been set too high for this mere $11 drugstore eyeshadow. The base colour is not as pigmented as the deeper shades and the lid/crease colour is much too dark on my eyelid used together. If applied individually on the crease and using a lighter shade from another eyeshadow throughout the middle of my lids would work wonderfully though.

Natural Smokes

Natural Smokes swatched

This next quad I bought in Designer Chocolates was more of a wild card item. I stood in front of the display pondering for a good 2-3 minutes. There was a burgundy colour. I love the colour don't get me wrong but I have never applied anything like it on my lids before. Being asian and having very shallow eye sockets, I don't experiment with colours very often (ever!). I like to play it safe and stick with the browns and bronzes. 

But straight after I transferred the combination of colours from this quad to my lids, I was in love. Combining the brown Liner colour with the burgundy Crease colour creates the most beautiful shimmer shade and I really can say that I don't own another eyeshadow quite like it. I highly recommend this quad. And for $11, it couldn't hurt to try.

Designer Chocolates

Designer Chocolates swatched

Using Designer Chocolates: Base colour used to highlight brow bone. Liner colour used on bottom lash line and out crease. Crease colour used on crease on top of brown Liner colour. Lid colour used all over the lid. I blended the colours out quite a lot so the cranberry/brown colour on my crease are very subtle. This look is suitable for a housewife like me on an everyday basis :)

Bobbi Brown Limited Edition Hot Cocoa Palette

I recently bought Bobbi Browns 2013 Holiday Limited Edition Palette in "Hot Cocoa" from bobbibrown.com.au and I am so glad that I purchased this palette! Now first just let me say, Bobbi Brown's postage and handling time is impressive! They ship the very next day. Even Hermes didn't live up to their "next-day-courier" delivery when I purchased from their website.

I love my nudes and neutrals so when I saw this available for sale online, the $125 price tag didn't hinder me at all. The urge to buy this palette also comes at a time when I'm obsessing about using only one particular product to complete my brow and eyes. (The fact that it comes with a blush is just an added bonus). All my current palettes cannot accommodate both my brows and eye makeup. (Even though I don't travel all that often, I've just made it my mission recently to find practical palettes like this).

The eye palette consists of four matte eye shadows, three metallic eye shadows and one sparkle eye shadow which I think is a good combination. The only downside for me is that the colours Chino and Hot Cocoa are very very similar. They are both light coloured matte eyeshadows. Chino is more grey based whereas Hot Cocoa is a bit more brown based. However, they really could pass as the other colour if not compared closely.

L-R: Cream, Velvet Plum, Chino, Nude Beach

L-R: Hot Cocoa, Pink Dusk, Sandy Pearl, Black Chocolate

The blush in Bellini is a gorgeous gorgeous colour. It is a perfect peach pink that brings a natural pink glow to the cheeks. It has a similar colour to NARS Orgasm without the golden shimmer. I have been wearing this blush on a daily basis. 

Packaging: Front

Packaging: Back

I purchased the Holiday 2012 Oyster & Caviar palette last year and for me, the Hot Cocoa palette is much more wearable. O & C is more cool toned which I don't really know how to work with for my olive skin tone. The blush is more of a sparkle highlighter which is definitely ok for your annual christmas party but not so much on a daily basis throughout the year. The packaging is identical so it's a little like trying to find a particular Nars product out of a bunch. The eyeshadows from both the palettes are 0.85 grams each but the O & C blush is 5.1 grams, slightly bigger than the 2013 Hot Cocoa blush which is 4.5 grams.

Holiday 2012 Oyster & Caviar palette

This is also the perfect time to stock up on your Bobbi products as they offer free shipping for purchases over $100, 3 random samples with every purchase as well as mystery deluxe samples with purchases over $75. Free gift wrapping is also offered at Checkout.

This seemed a much better incentive for me to buy online as my David Jones counters never have decent samples let alone deluxe ones! The samples that I got were:

* Soothing Cleansing Oil 15mL

* Instant Long-wear Makeup Remover 30mL

* Hydrating Eye Cream 3mL
* Extra Repair Eye Cream 2 x 1.5mL
* Intensifying Long-wear Mascara 3mL

Haul: Mecca Maxima

MECCA MAXIMA is probably the closest thing Australia is going to have to a Sephora. Sydney opened the first two stores last week in Parramatta Westfield and Warringah Mall. They are a chain to Mecca Cosmetica but bigger and with a wider range of products across 100 brands.

I spent a good half hour just swatching and browsing through the store and picked out a few items that I had always wanted where prices were not as inflated compared to overseas or online beauty sites.

The first product to go into my basket was the GlamGlow Youth Mud which has received a lot of hype due to its apparent magical radiance after just 10 minutes on the face.  I haven't used it yet and I will try to write an in depth review for this product once I have used it a couple of times to see if it is indeed as miraculous as Nina Dobrev claims it to be! This was AUD $75 for a jar of 50mL which I don't think is too expensive as they are around USD 69 from Sephora.

The next product that I wanted to try was the BareMinerals foundation. I have seen so many beauty gurus use this product but have always dismissed it as I've never been a mineral cosmetics enthusiast. And powder foundation just didn't sit right with me. But after seeing it used as a make up setting powder which offered another layer of coverage, I was hooked and needed to try it out. Anything light with heavy coverage I will welcome with open arms (and credit cards). 

The sales was super nice and we chatted about my pregnancy and her babies. She matched me to the colour W10 Golden Fair which is my current colour. She warned me that it might become a little too light if I planned to get some tan during the summer. But with a newborn coming in the next two weeks, I don't think I'll be hitting the beach too often! I used this over my Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua (as I did not want a thick foundation underneath this powder) and the finished result is so dewy. Almost too dewy. I'm not sure if its because the Vitalumiere Aqua is so moisture rich that the powder just got absorbed into it or whether the original formula of the BareMinerals foundation is meant to have a dewy finish. (I know there is a Matte version of this powder foundation available). The finish is not too thick at all and have almost a no makeup feel to it which I am thoroughly enjoying. This was AUD $34.95. Which is a lot cheaper than I thought it would be. Cosmeticsnow.com.au is selling it for $35 and beautybay.com has it for $36 and thats the "on special" price as well!

After trying on the foundation, I thought "what the heck, may as well try out the infamous Well Rested under eye concealer. The sales applied it on my under eyes with a dome shadow brush which puzzled me and it didn't blend out at all. But being a self anointed make up expert (ha.ha.) I overlooked this as I know my Real Techniques setting brush will make it all ok. But to my dismay, the well dressed was out of stock :( I swatched Summer Bisque next to Well Rested and the colour was very very similar with well resteded just a bit more warmer and yellow toned. And I was fine with that. Summer Bisque was AUD $24.95 which again was cheaper than online which baffled me. Had these prices gone down recently?

I haven't used a pen liner in about 2 years. I love how convenient and easy to use/control they are but one thing that bugged me all the time was that eye shadow would transfer onto the tips of the liner, making it 1. blunt and 2. blocks the liquid from coming out of the tip. So I usually end up having to throw away a liner not because there was no more product but because it was no longer making its way down to the tips. Recently I have been using the MAC fluid line gel liner everyday and I'm sad to say it has gotten to the end of it's lifespan. So what better time to try out this Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liner. It is very easy to glide on, the colour comes out beautifully and I'm loving the control I have over it. Due to the fact that I have used a brush applicator to apply my fluid line for the past 2 years, I'm not yet used to the pen tip. It literally feels like I'm dragging a sharpie across my lids at the moment. This retails for RRP $18.95 and beautybay.com has it for $17.70 so again not much difference.

Again, as Mecca Maxima is new to Sydney, each customer purchase over $65 will receive a GWP gift. It contains a 30mL Philosophy cleanser (which smells amazing! the whole box smells of this product), a 15mL Clinique Super Primer, a full size Lancome Vintage Rose Lipstick and a Living Proof full thickening cream for hair. Because I purchased a fair bit of products, the sales was kind enough to offer me 2 sets of these which I am dying to try out.

Thanks for reading through my rant. I'd love to hear your opinions on the GlamGlow Youth Mud as I have yet to try it!

xo Kristen

Swatch: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

Recently there was a Revlon promotion at Priceline where you can get 3 products for the price of 2. I wasn't really interested in anything until I saw the 5 Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain gift set. Being a huge, huge, HUGE fan of the Clinique Chubby Sticks, I was excited to try out Revlon's cheaper alternative. 

Doing some quick math, if I were to pick out 2 more Balm Stains, the total of each stain would come to $8.30 after the promotional discount. The usual RRP is $17.95 each. WIN! The colors included in the Gift set are:

010 Darling

015 Cherish

020 Lovesick

040 Rendezvous

055 Adore

And the two extra that I picked out from the permanent range are:

001 Honey

045 Romantic

From L-R: Honey, Cherish, Darling, Lovesick, Rendezvous, Romantic, Adore

These balm stains are quite glossy. And I feel that the colour intensifies over time (so it does work as a stain!) But I am a bit undecided about whether I like the scent of these stains. They have a minty/tiger balm scent to them. I haven't tasted it but I wouldn't imagine it to be pleasant. So this is my only downside for these stains compared to the fragrance-free Clinique Chubby sticks.

Swatch from L-R: Honey, Cherish, Darling, Lovesick, Rendezvous, Romantic, Adore

This is one wipe with tissue (no make up remover used)

Of these colours, I would probably only wear Honey, Lovesick, Romantic and Adore on a daily basis. Honey is my most favorite for a pinky nude lip. I hear Revlon have released "Lacquer Stains" and also a Matte range of the balm stains in America and I can't wait to try them when they arrive in Australia. I am such a sucker for Matte lip products!

Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer

The Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer is my second "Youtube made me buy it" product for this month. After watching all the reviews, I needed this humungous 18gram jar of concealing goodness in my collection. 

My current holy grail concealer is the Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage concealer and these two products can't be anymore different. First is the texture. LM is a solid and dry-to-the-touch cream which needs to be warmed underneath your fingertips prior to application. It also doesn't spread so much upon application (which I guess is also why it's such a great concealer because it doesn't move at all) and has to be blotted on using stippling motions. The Kevyn Aucoin SSE is creamy soft and if you don't use a light touch, you're likely to get too much product on your finger. It is so rich and creamy that the smallest amount can be spread over a substantial surface area with fairly high coverage.

The colour that findation.com matched me to was SX04 which is light with yellow undertones. I did find a little bit of creasing under the inner corners of my eyes. But i still consider this to be a small flaw which can be overlooked once I set it with Laura Mercier's Secret Brightening Powder. 

This small jar of goodness is fairly pricey. I purchased it from yesstyle.com.au for AUD$58. However, LM Secret Camouflage was $49 for half the amount of product, so in the end it seems worthwhile. I am definitely interested in trying out more of Kevyn Aucoin's products. The packaging for some is so slick and absolutely elegant. 

Have you used Kevyn Aucoin products? Is there anything you could recommend me to try for next time?